Tampa Bay Buccaneers Needed To Hit Reset Button Long Time Ago

By Karim Akbar

Steve Mitchell – USA TODAY Sports

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers dismissed head coach Greg Schiano and longtime general manager Mark Dominik on Monday. The Bucs joined four other teams that fired their head coach or front office personnel, and according to reports Lovie Smith is the front-runner for the position. Fortunately for Bucs fans they won’t have to sit through another poor season from a general manager and franchise that once won a Super Bowl and were playoff fixtures.

Mark Dominik was an in-house hire that rose up to General Manager. Though he built the team that won Super Bowl XXXVII, his leadership extended to a team that has missed the postseason in six consecutive seasons. Dominik also whiffed on recent drafts as well as Gerald McCoy is the only standout of a group of linemen drafted by Dominik that have actually panned out. The defensive tackle said:

“It’s tough for the players to see your coaches go. You never want to see anybody get fired. Me personally, I haven’t had any consistency in my career. Third head coach, going on my fifth year and three head coaches. Add up everybody, it’ll be six d-line coaches.”

Former Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris was a players coach so when Mark Dominik and Tampa Bay surprised everyone by going with a coach that had more experience coaching young boys at Rutgers than men in the NFL, you knew there would be problems. Outbreaks of MRSA — a flesh eating virus — aside this team had its share of headlines. Schiano and his aggressive almost militaristic style of coaching was a bad choice from the start, and that rubbed players and opposing coaches the wrong way.

The highly secretive Glazers — who own the Buccaneers — also own Manchester United, a prominent franchise with much more pedigree. If the Glazers want to right the ship in Tampa Bay they need to go with a proven leader like Lovie Smith. Putting an end to the team’s failure starts with a solid front office, and until the Glazers stop the circus sideshow and make some serious moves this team is destined for failure. You can only hope they rectify that with some credible hires.

Bucs fans rejoice; help is on the way because whoever inherits these jobs won’t have to do much. This team is stacked going into the offseason and Tampa Bay also owns the No. 7 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. That makes for an attractive package for unemployed head coaches.